Samsung’s next generation of processors, the Exynos 8 family of chips has been rumored for some time, more recently having been rumored to already be entering mass production, with another rumor citing a possibility that the Samsung may not use the Exynos 8890 CPU inside all of the upcoming Galaxy S7 models which have been rumored to ship with the new processor inside. While the details on the Galaxy S7 CPU are still uncertain, Samsung has now officially announced the Exynos 8890 octa-core CPU that is built on technology using the 14-Nanometer FinFET process, the same FinFET process technology that Samsung has used for the Exynos 7420 CPU that powers this year’s lineup of flagship smartphones from the company.
There lies one major difference though between the upcoming Exynos 8 octa and the current generation Exynos 7 octa. The new Exynos 8 is an “integrated one-chip solution.” In addition to this, Samsung states that they have utilized a custom design for this CPU, basing it off of the 64-bit ARM v8 architecture, which Samsung boasts will bring in improved performance over previous model chips. Samsung’s VP of System LSI Marketing, Dr. Kyushik Hong states that, “The Exynos 8 Octa is a leading-edge application processor for next-generation mobile devices that incorporates Samsung’s mobile technology leadership in CPU, ISP, and modem as well as process technology.” Hong is referring to the LTE Rel.12 Cat.12/13 modem, which is integrated with the CPU to combine for a single chip makeup.
When it comes to improvement figures, Samsung states that the Exynos 8 octa has a 30 percent gain in performance over the Exynos 7 octa chips, which should help users see great improvements in everything from multitasking, to gaming, to even simple uses. Not only that, but Samsung says they were able to squeeze out an additional 10 percent in power efficiency, meaning their upcoming devices powered by this processor should see slightly increased battery life. The chip is made up of four custom cores designed by Samsung while the other four cores are ARM Cortex A53 cores, which Samsung states allows the chip to use the total 8 cores more efficiently thanks to support for enhanced heterogeneous multiprocessing. This also helps the Exynos 8 octa chip provide unparalleled performance and power efficiency compared to other equivalent chips according to Samsung. As for the graphics processing, this will be handled by the Mali T880 which is ARM’s newest GPU for the market. Samsung’s confirms rumors that production will begin this year, stating that they will being mass production on the Exynos 8 octa chip in late 2015, although they don’t give a specific date.